Mobile wireless communication devices, such as a wireless cellular telephone or a wireless enabled computer tablet, can provide a wide variety of communication services including, for example, voice communication, text messaging, internet browsing, and audio/video streaming. Continuous access to services while the mobile wireless communication device moves across a geographic region served by multiple cells of a wireless communication network can require a seamless handoff between different cells in the network. Wireless communication networks can use different standardized communication protocols, such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS). Each of these standardized communication protocols can specify access techniques that permit the simultaneous service of multiple mobile wireless communication devices by a wireless communication network.
As individual cells within a wireless communication network can overlap in the geographic regions that they serve, a mobile wireless communication device can simultaneously transmit to and receive from several different base transceiver stations located in different cells. The mobile wireless communication device can indicate to the wireless communication network the quality of signals that the mobile wireless communication network detects from the different base transceiver stations, as the mobile wireless communication device traverses the wireless communication network. The wireless communication network can add and delete radio frequency links between the mobile wireless communication device and the different base transceiver stations to maintain a continuous wireless connection.
The wireless communication network can receive control messages (including those that indicate received signal quality from various base transceiver stations) at regular intervals from the mobile wireless communication device. If the wireless communication network processes control messages from the mobile wireless communication device in the order received, then some control messages, such as those indicating newly detected base transceiver stations, can be delayed for processing by the wireless communication network until earlier received control messages have been processed. When the mobile wireless communication device travels from one cell to another cell in the wireless communication network, with an attendant rapid decrease in signal quality from the first cell and a simultaneous rapid increase in signal quality from the second cell, adding a connection to the second cell can require rapid processing by the wireless communication network to maintain the wireless connection with the mobile wireless communication device. Delaying the addition of the second cell can result in the wireless connection being terminated. Thus there exists a need for controlling a wireless connection between a mobile wireless communication device and a wireless communication network when signal quality of the current serving cell degrades rapidly in order to maintain the integrity of the wireless connection.